CHAPTER 33

(587 B.C.)

THE WATCHMANS DUTIES

¹Again the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

²Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman (a great part of this Chapter will deal with the Ministry of the watchman, to which Ezekiel is appointed by the Lord. In 24:15-27, the Prophet had been committed to silence, at least regarding Israel, but is now permitted to resume his ministry to the Exiles):

³If when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people (the responsibility of the watchman is to correctly see and warn. He was to warn by blowing the trumpet. The modern Preacher is to do the same thing by correctly preaching the True Gospel [I Cor. 1:17]);

⁴Then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and takes not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. (If one is to notice, there is a demand by the Holy Spirit that the people be allowed to hear that which is Truth. What they do with it is then upon his own head.)

⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he who takes warning shall deliver his soul. (The opportunity to accept or reject is demanded by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the True Preacher of the Gospel to blow a certain and sure sound. The responsibility is then with the hearer. If he takes not warning, the loss of his soul will be his own responsibility.)

⁶But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand. (Two types of warnings are given in this Passage: the warning that should be given to the people by faithful watchmen; and the warning that should be given by the Holy Spirit to unfaithful watchmen.)

⁷So you, O son of man, I have set you a watchman unto the House of Israel; therefore you shall hear the Word at My Mouth, and warn them from Me. (The commission of Ezekiel is once again enjoined. He is called, O son of man, which is the same designation that will be given to The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ [Mat. 13:37; Lk. 9:44, 56].)

⁸When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die; if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. (This Chapter is similar in many ways and to a great degree to Chapter 3. The repetition, due to the extreme seriousness of the matter, is by design.)

⁹Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. (The True Preacher is not responsible for the response of the individual to the Message, but the True Preacher most definitely is responsible that the right Message be delivered.)

GODS DEALINGS ARE JUST

¹⁰Therefore, O you son of man, speak unto the House of Israel; Thus you speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? (This Scripture addressed itself to the scorn, incredulity, and derision heaped upon the Prophet, when he told of the coming Judgment. The people trusted in the promises of the false prophets [13:6]. Now they stand face-to-face with the fulfillment of the Prophets words.

The question, How should we then live?, proclaims the hopelessness of the people, inasmuch as they now realize the seriousness of their sin.)

¹¹Say unto them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O House of Israel? (This is a plea for Repentance, without which these individuals will be lost!)

¹²Therefore, you son of man, say unto the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sins. (This Passage and many others are a plain and clear rebuke to those who teach the unscriptural doctrine of unconditional eternal security. If the Believer turns from his righteousness and begins to live a life of sinning, and refuses to repent, he will die lost. Conversely, if the wicked individual quits his wickedness by turning to the Lord, his wickedness will not be remembered against him.)

¹³When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it. (The idea of this Verse is: if an individual thinks he can trust his past righteousness to save him when he has committed sin and continues therein, refusing to repent, his past righteousness shall not be remembered. Again, this completely refutes the unscriptural doctrine of unconditional eternal security.)

¹⁴Again, when I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

¹⁵If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. (Give again that he had robbed, illustrates the power of the new life in Christ to fulfill the requirements of the Moral Law as it was evidenced in the conversion of Zacchaeus [Lk. 19:1-10].)

¹⁶None of his sins that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. (The first part of this Verse constitutes Justification by Faith. These sins are not mentioned any more because in the Mind of God they do not exist and, in fact, they have never existed.

He shall surely live, constitutes Salvation, i.e., the born again experience, which negates spiritual death [Jn. 3:3]. This constitutes the greatest thing that can happen to any human heart and life.)

¹⁷Yet the children of your people say, The Way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. (Israel, as most, was claiming that their righteousness and unrighteousness should be balanced one against the other. They construed the Ways of the Lord as unequal, inasmuch as He did not judge in that manner. In fact, it was not Gods Ways which were unequal, but their ways.

Even in the practical application of life, that which they were contending, the balancing of one against the other, does not hold true. For instance, if a man lives 1,000 days without taking poison and then on the 1,001 day takes poison, all the previous days free of poison will not assuage the results.)

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die thereby. (The Holy Spirit is emphatic in that the present condition is what counts with God; it is also that which should count with man.)

¹⁹But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. (As well, the Lord judges the wicked exactly as He does the righteous, all according to their present status. If the wicked man repents, the Lord will instantly save, wiping out all past wickedness.)

²⁰Yet you say, The Way of the Lord is not equal. O you House of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways. (Perfect love beams in Verse 11; perfect justice, in Verse 20. The Judgment is just, equal, fair, and right in that every one is judged after his ways, which shows no partiality.)

THE NEWS OF JERUSALEMS FALL

²¹And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, The city is smitten. (The phrase, The city is smitten, even though said by the messenger [whoever he was], is given as a sob by the Holy Spirit. How so unnecessary this was! But yet, it was done only after the Lord had exhausted every means to bring the people to Repentance, but to no avail!)

²²Now the Hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he who was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. (And my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb, refers back to 24:26-27. It is not exactly known how long he was not permitted to prophesy regarding Judah. But now he is to prophesy again.)

PROPHECY TO THE REMNANT; THEIR SINS AND JUDGMENT

²³Then the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, they who inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance. (The argument of this ungodly remnant was that if a mighty nation was born of one man, Abraham, how much more powerful a nation could spring out of the many sons of Abraham who had been left in Judah by the Babylonian king! In fact, the faith that said, the land is given us for inheritance, was a proud and carnal faith and would not be honored by God. Judgment upon their iniquities, not blessings snatched by presumption, would be the result of their carnal and ungodly thinking.)

²⁵Wherefore say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land? (To eat with the blood violated Lev. 19:26 and was done in honor of an idol. Consequently, this was a double sin against the Law. Though they claimed to be children of Abraham [therefore, Children of God], they were idolatrous, self-confident, violent, and impure.)

²⁶You stand upon your sword, you work abomination, and you defile every one his neighbours wife: and shall you possess the land? (The Holy Spirit through the Prophet, even though many hundreds of miles away from destroyed Judah, still, speaks the same thing as the Prophet Jeremiah had prophesied. Despite the Judgment, this remnant in Judah continued to be idol worshippers, rebels against God, and dependent upon their own feeble military preparation; this actually bordered on idiocy, inasmuch as they were a defeated people.)

²⁷Say you thus unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they who are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him who is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they who be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. (Concerning the ungodly remnant in Judah, Ezekiel prophesies, exactly as Jeremiah had prophesied, that there was no escape for them from the judging Hand of God, and rightly so, because of their rebellion.)

²⁸For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. (Concerning Judah, the phrase, And the pomp of her strength shall cease, was brought to pass in stark reality, undeniable by all!)

²⁹Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. (At any time along the way, if Repentance had been engaged for these abominations, they would have been instantly forgiven and put away, with Mercy and Grace extended. Inasmuch as there was no Repentance, their sins, i.e., abominations, brought about the desolation, as such will bring about desolation in any nation, heart, or life!)

EZEKIEL WILL BE VINDICATED

³⁰Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the Word that comes forth from the LORD. (It seems that the word against would have been better translated of. If so, it would mean that the Exiles were proud of their Prophet Ezekiel, admiring his preaching and crowding to hear him, but did not for a moment intend any change of conduct. Similar features present themselves today in the professing Christian Church.)

³¹And they come unto you as the people comes, and they sit before you as My People, and they hear your words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness. (The words, As My People, mean professing to be My People. Their covetousness, refers to money-getting and all forms of self-pleasing. They show much love, means that they profess love, but in truth have no love of God, or for God.)

³²And, lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but they do them not. (A very lovely song, refers to the people coming to hear the Prophet as they would to hear a hired singer at a banquet. The Prophets words passed over them and left no lasting impression.)

³³And when this comes to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a Prophet has been among them. (The Revelation of the rebellious corruption of the listeners hearts saved the Prophet from the self-complacent corruption of his own heart, which his popularity as a Preacher would naturally excite.

And when this comes to pass, refers back to Verses 10 through 20 and demands Repentance. It means that unless they repent, they will surely die. The Holy Spirit emphasizes the statement by saying, lo, it will come, meaning the time of eternal destiny.

When this time would come, they would know that a Prophet has been among them, and that they had been listening, not to a hireling singer, but to a Prophet of Jehovah.)